A prior art hair trimming device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,884,402 issued to Talavera. Talavera discloses a hair trimming device for cutting substantially equal portions of hair from the distal end of hair shafts. The trimming device has a brush-like body having a handle end and a head end. The head end has a co-operating slot for receiving a selectively biased roller about the interior of the slot. Strands of hair are placed between the slot in the head end of the body and the roller. A roller actuating lever at the handle end of the body may be depressed by a user. Depressing of the lever depresses the roller into the slot by rotating a cooperating mechanism connected to both the roller and lever causing the roller to depress. The user inserts hair strands between the raised roller and slotted side of the head end and thereafter the roller sinks into the slot at a predetermined bias to put tension on the hair strands. The device is then pulled through the hair in a brush like fashion causing only the distal ends of hair moving between the roller and slot to rise into a cutting blade in which substantially equal portions of the end of the individual hairs are removed while leaving adjacent longer hair strands uncut until their ends are drawn through the device.
A shortcoming associated with a hair trimming device according to Talavera is that the cooperating hinge apparatus for raising and lowering the roller from the handle slot is rather complicated and thus costly to manufacture. In addition, during operation of a hair trimming device according to Talavera, in particular when the lever is pressed towards the handle end portion to lower the roller into the handle slot, the user's hand may be accidentally caught between the lever and the handle end portion, thus possibly hurting the user.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a hair trimming device in which the aforesaid shortcomings are mitigated, or at least to provide a useful alternative to the public.